Liverpool FC Forum

[redandblue]

10 November 2003


Dear Mr Parry,

We have played 12 matches and I read this morning that Mr. Houllier has given up hopes of winning the league this season. Apparently, the objective now is for Liverpool to try to get fourth spot in the league and thereby qualify for the Champions League. What on earth has happened to this once great club? Why has the Board settled for mediocrity? Why do the Board members believe the manager when he says that things are turning around, or worse, after five years in the job that the team is in transition?

The statistics and results do not lie. For the past YEAR, Liverpool’s results have been poor. We have played the three heavyweights this season at home and lost every one. Last season, of the eight matches played against the four teams who finished above Liverpool, we won once. In fact, if we take these eight matches together with the three from this season, the results are pretty damning…….played 11, won 1, drawn 3, lost 7!! The facts are that Liverpool cannot rise to the occasion and beat the heavyweights. Despite what your manager says, there is a huge gulf in class, performance and results between Liverpool and Arsenal, United and Chelsea.

Some more facts? Were you aware that the last time that Liverpool overturned a half time deficit in the league and turned it into victory was 1999. I think that we have been behind at half time in excess of 40 times during this period and have yet to record a single victory. It is a remarkable statistic and reflects poorly on the manager’s ability to turn things around.

Mr Houllier has been manager for five years. He has brought the club a few trophies, even if some of them were extremely fortuitous (beating Birmingam on penalties after failing to beat them over 120 minutes of football, and being outclassed in the FA Cup Final by Arsenal before being rescued by Owen). We are grateful for these successes and they certainly cheered us up. But even when we were winning the three cups a few years ago, many of the fans remained unconvinced that this could be a platform for bigger things.  Those of us who harboured these doubts have been proved correct.

Your manager has taken the team as far as it can go and surely, surely the Board will wake up to what is going on here. The fans are sick and tired of lame excuses from your manager and are perplexed that the Board sits on it’s hands and does nothing. Check out some of the Liverpool Fan Chatrooms on the web.  See what the fans have to say. Mr Houllier has become a figure of ridicule which , frankly, he deserves. But he should have been told to go long ago. He could have gone with dignity and our gratitude. Instead, he gets lampooned by fans on radio phone-ins and web chatrooms.

Liverpool fans, generally, are very knowledgeable about the game. And they know that results and performances have been alarmingly poor. I was somewhat upset to see your triumphalism………you, Moores and Houllier, after Liverpool had beaten a wretchedly poor Everton side 3-0 earlier this season. Is that what cheers up the management of the club these days? It is a sign of how far standards have been allowed to slip when the club starts celebrating victories over poor teams like Everton who are relegation contenders.

There are a lot of fans out here who have had enough. Liverpool have not won the league championship for an awfully long time and we are in real danger of becoming a mid-table side. Your manager has had five long years and over £100m to spend to put together a team which could challenge for the title. He has failed. The team which he has bought is simply not good enough to compete at the highest levels and win the major prizes. And the team remains hugely dependent on Michael Owen. Why he bothers to stay at Anfield continues to be a mystery. Surely he wants to join an ambitious club and challenge for the game’s highest awards? He will not achieve that by staying with Liverpool and the current management team.

You and your fellow Board members are custodians of the club’s proud heritage, but you are letting that heritage down by your stubborn refusal to get rid of your manager. If you worked in my line of business, you’d all get the sack for mismanagement, a lack of professionalism and a shocking return on investments. Oh, and a poor product. It is not just Houllier’s failure. All of you are culpable of allowing one of England’s greatest club’s to sink into mediocrity and for standards to fall so far. Liverpool once stood for excellence, both on and off the park. This is clearly no longer the case.

What will it take for you to get rid of your manager and start rebuilding? A relegation struggle?


Yours truly,



Alistair A. Donald

[JBG]

Hear hear.

20 years ago Liverpool were the best run club in Europe, probably the world.

Over the past 13 years the club has sunk into medocracity, and the buck must stop with Rick Parry and David Moores.

[Owzat]

Couldn't have put it better myself. While I appreciate that Kermit has brought trophies to Anfield, he is nowhere near delivering the Holy Grail and that was his mission.To be only 12 games in and talking of finishing fourth shows even he doesn't believe his own excuses. Am I the only one who gets sick of hearing injuries and ill fortune as an excuse for losing? The man who has spent over £100m during his 5 year reign comes out with excuses!!!!!!!!! Oh, please......

[greenred]

this is a quote from yesterdays guardian online 
"Houllier: judge me in 12 months

Georgina Turner
Tuesday November 11, 2003

Gerard Houllier took over sole control of Liverpool five years ago this week but still insists he should not be judged for another 12 months.
On the day that Steven Gerrard finally signed a new contract that will keep him at the club until 2007, Houllier made light of the fact that Liverpool are 13 points off the top.

The Frenchman could well be haunted by his "judge me in five years" claim when he took over from Roy Evans.

But the Frenchman has been quick to shift the goalposts slightly by insisting that for his first 12 months in control it was not his team, but that of a variety of predecessors. Houllier believes the second half of the 98-99 season does not really count, and his five-year timespan should be judged from the summer of 1999 when he started rebuilding in earnest."

is he taking the p#ss!
your time is up gh,time to go.

[Owzat]

Isn't that true whenever a manager takes over?!?!?!?!! I am sick of his excuses which hide the facts - that he has spent over £100m in rebuilding a team, arguably twice, that he is now no closer to winning the Premiership than he was when he took over, that he is making Liverpool into a laughing stock, that soon our best players will be leaving for greater honours, that we have allowed so much quality leave Anfield already and kept mediocre players instead....................

[big al]

Redandblue or is it Alistair, your a man after my own heart.  I hope that someones listening to you and us all.

please leave Mr Houlier

[JBG]

I think Tony Blair should give Houllier Alisatar Campbell's job...that 12 months/5 years thing is an amazing peice of spin!

[azriahmad]

Well said, redandblue. GH is the core of the problems. The present Liverpool players are generally talented as compared to 10 years ago...with world class players who have better individual talents than some of the great team of our glorious eras. What is wrong? No heart, little passion and amazingly a continuation of poor tactics and sterile gameplay coupled with GH's stubborn insistence of playing unworthy players match in and match out because they are his favourites - Heskey, Smicer etc.
martin O'Neill may not be the best manager around but he can get blood out of stone and wring out the best of the limited talents and funds he has at his disposal. He has transformed Celtic into a never-say-die outfri who play with true grit, commitment and passion. They all work hard for each other and are a very motivated lot.
Liverpool today? Somewhere over time we have lost it and GH cannot restore it. Perhaps it is not his priority. Look at MU and how they play with passion and pride and work their socks off. Look at Arsenal this season, the difference between the last season and this season is their higher collective commitment and willingness to work harder. We have too many heartless and headless footballers who call themselves Liverpool players.
We rely too much on Owen and Gerrard. Gerrard work his socks off and it right now, it seems that he is the only one who is willing to live and die for the whole team and carrying the burden of lifting the spirits of his colleagues on the field. And this is the player GH choose to lambast in public last season.
You don't motivate your young player like that, dress him down in private, not in public. No wonder the the whole squad have becoem a bunch of softies...

[Cleman]

a group of my friends (liverpool supporters) recently told me about their disappointment with the Liverpool FC Board of Director, and also fed up with G. Houllier.......they have decided to quit as the Reds fans while Liverpool FC still under in-charge of Houllier....they have stopped calling themselves Liverpool FC fans, and stopped supporting Liverpool FC from all the aspects...as long as GH still the manager for Liverpool FC...
To them, this season the League title has gone...the chance to play Champion league is slim.....even next season Liverpool in champion league...they don't expect Liverpool can move far in that kind of competitive games against top clubs from Europe..

I feel sad on this...but I share the same feeling with them.

Please leave G. Houllier to save Liverpool FC...and subsequently to keep Owen as Reds.

[JBG]

I will always remain a Pool fan even if we end up in the conference, and I admit I do not hate Mr. Houlier. He did a good job at the start of his tenure at Anfield, won some trophies, made the side very competitive at home and abroad.

However, since he returned from his illness, his side have showed a lack of passion, he has made some bad decisions (selling Litmannen, not giving Babbel another chance, not signing Anelka, persisting with Heskey, signing Diouff, Cheyrou and Diao when he should really have focussed on Damien Duff) and generally made a balls of everything.

Go now Gerard before you destroy the club and ruin your own reputation.

[gary]

so who do we bring in? I honestly think we are better to stick with le boss for the time being and see how the season finishes, i am not happy at the moment but i think it is a case of better the devil you know, besides with didi back and owen back in the side we might just grind out some results (did you honestly think we were going to challenge for the league this season?) let us see what happens before we all jump on the 'lets sack the boss' bandwagon, i agree with some of your points but as a bitter blue said to me the other day we could be in a similar position to them (## ##!) so lets hold out some hope that we can rescue our season? ? ?

A true red

[greenred]

despite everything I will always support the reds,even in the conference league(well we have more chance of winning that than the premiership)   
when the manager is gone
when the players have driven off in their ferraris
when the glory days are but a fond memory
we will still be here
we are the fans
we are liverpool.

oh s##t Im  starting to get emotional

[Owzat]

You'd be sick if you saw the documentary on BBC2 last night where at one point they were claiming there are 54 million manu supporters worldwide!

[greenred]

half of them are on this site.